Truthfully.com Oct. 25, 2024 Excerpts from the article: An 8-year-old girl in Ohio took an unexpected and dangerous joyride when she drove her mother's SUV to a Target® store, about 25 minutes away, sparking concern among her family and local police. The incident on Sept. 15, 2024 captured attention after the young girl was safely located at the store, happily sipping on a Frappuccino, unaware of the stir she had caused. The Bedford Police Department responded to a 911 call from the girl's family, who reported her missing after they discovered she had left the house around 7 a.m. Surveillance footage from a neighbor's Ring® camera showed the girl climbing into her mother's 2020 Nissan Rogue® and driving off alone. For nearly two hours, her family and police searched for her. While there were no major accidents, the child admitted to hitting a mailbox during her trip. In a weird way, this restores my faith in future generations. Talk about pursuing your goals!
I was actually teaching my kids to drive our old farm truck at around that age, and I think other people who lived in the country and had tractors and old trucks used to teach their kids when they were young. We had to drive down the road to the old church , which had a water faucet outside, and we filled up the water barrels with our garden hose and then went back home again. One of the horse troughs was out back in the woods, so my oldest son (along with the two younger kids) got to drive out back and had to maneuver the truck around to unload the water, and then drive back up to the house. I wanted to be sure that my kids had a good grasp on driving before they became teenagers and wanted to drive legally on the roads. So, when we were on the back roads, I let them learn how to shift gears and drive the truck. This is how I learned to drive, too, out with my dad in his 1-ton power line truck. He would put it in compound low (4x4 low) and let me meander down the dirt roads where he had to go to fix power line outages.
I drove from front of property to the back where the lake was, About 9 I ventured out to the main highway, hit a mailbox and never was allowed to drive again till of age, But at 13 I did take the brand new 1963 Super Sport for a spin, got pulled over and went to juvenile, My friend was with me and she looked older so policeman said shame on you for letting this kid drive, she told him, " she's older than I am" she had just turned 13. We are still best friends and talk at least weekly.
Incredible! I'm assuming she had some driving experience in the past. When I first started driving at 15, I was scared. I took driver's ed & driver training in high school; they were available back then. Four of us would take turns driving with the teacher. One student couldn't get the idea that you had to slow down before turning; he'd just turn the wheel at 45 mph with the teacher yelling. The car slid into another car. Exciting class, eh?
I think most of us "farm kids" were driving trucks and farm equipment from the time we could reach the pedals. Even nowadays when I go to south GA to visit family, I am surprised to see my young nieces and nephews driving huge tractors and stuff in the fields.
I just remembered my first "driving" experience. It could have been really bad. When I was 5, my dad had some kind of door-to-door sales job. He'd take me with him & I'd wait in the car while he knocked on doors. He wasn't smart to leave me alone in that De Soto when he knew I liked to play with every button & switch in the car. He parked on a steep hill & said, "Don't touch anything," then he started canvassing the block. Of course, when he was out of sight, the first thing I did was press the starter button. I loved the way it made the whole car shake. Well, everything was OK until I played with that pull-out parking brake lever. It snapped forward, then the car started rolling down the hill, going faster & faster. I jumped into the back seat. The car went over a curb & hit a tree (luckily). It could have hit a pedestrian. A cop arrived & yelled at my dad for leaving me alone in the car.
OMG, I can hardly believe this but I truly don't doubt one word of it, and your comment is priceless John, LOLLLL!!